


Of Birds and Bats

by Levaaah



Series: Freefalling [4]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Bruce Wayne Tries, Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Embarrassment, F/M, Teenagers, The Talk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-12
Updated: 2020-02-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:42:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22682689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Levaaah/pseuds/Levaaah
Summary: Bruce Wayne is nothing if not efficient and has The Talk with his teenage daughterandher boyfriend. Where's the harm in that?
Relationships: Dick Grayson/Original Female Character
Series: Freefalling [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1631698
Comments: 2
Kudos: 56





	Of Birds and Bats

_\--- 2013 – July – Gotham ---_

Eleanor shifts uncomfortably in her chair, her eyes keep darting towards her father, standing by the fireplace with his back turned towards her, and Dick, in the other armchair about a meter or so away from her.

She feels nervous, like Eleanor’s going to get scolded for doing something she shouldn’t have. Like the time she was messing around with the Batmobile just because she wanted to know how it worked at ten years old. Or the time Eleanor had _accidentally_ purchased an entire collections worth of poetry books using her dad’s credit card when she was seven.

Dick doesn’t look like he’s faring any better, he keeps bouncing his legs as he squirms in his seat and every time their eyes would meet, he’d blush furiously then hastily look away.

Alfred had escorted her into the room as soon as Eleanor had gotten back home, she’d found them like this and with every passing moment of silence the tension just kept getting worse.

When her father does turn around – Eleanor really should have been smart enough to realise he’d definitely let them stew in their thoughts on purpose, interrogation tactics, – his arms are crossed behind his back and he looks right at her with piercing dark blue eyes. Eleanor’s not scared of her father, she knows he would never hurt her, but she feels a bit anxious from both the silence and his gaze. Eleanor feels her back straighten out almost automatically, like a soldier during inspection.

“Eleanor,” he starts slowly, his face gives off no trace of what he’s thinking. Eleanor sneaks another look at Dick, who refuses to meet her eyes.

“I believe it’s time we all spoke about what’s going on here,” her father says, and Eleanor’s eyes snap back up towards him.

“What’s going on here?” Eleanor is deliberately speaking slowly, trying to gain some time to rack her brain on anything she’d done wrong, something on patrol? No he wouldn’t be talking to them in the family room about that, he’d bluntly just tell them in the cave, and not wait for the entire day to pass either.

She glances at Dick again when he stops bouncing his right leg and starts bouncing the left one instead, his hands clenched into tight fists in his lap, and Eleanor’s stomach drops, oh shit… _fuck._

“Yes,” her father continues, and she might be getting whiplash from just looking between the two of them. “The relationship between the two of you.”

“Oh uhm, well,” her voice is too high pitched, Eleanor had known it was bound to happen at some point, right? You don’t really hide anything from the world’s greatest detective for very long.

“I understand you two have grown close over the past couple of years, and I thought it would be good for us to talk.”

 _Talk_.

Eleanor feels her face heat up, she wants nothing more than to sink into the cushion of the armchair and disappear. This could _not_ be happening.

“Now, I know that you’re both old enough to know about sex, but I wanted to make sure that you’re practising safe sex and I want to stress to you that if you need condoms-”

“Oh god,” she whines, reaching up to cover her face with her hands. Debating if she could hold her breath until she’s unconscious. Put her up against a dozen armed thugs any day instead of having _The Talk_ with her father, _and_ boyfriend.

“Having sex is natural-,” her father continues, and Eleanor absentmindedly wonders if he’d written up a speech beforehand, or googled ‘how to talk about the birds and the bees with your teenagers’.

“- and healthy, it helps lower stress as well as let you sleep better, however it’s not without risks, such as pregnancy and-”

“Dad,” Eleanor hurriedly interrupts, peaking at him through her fingers, before she rubs her face and sits straight again, though Eleanor can’t help but mirror the way Dick’s squirming now. “I’ve been on birth control pills since I got my first period.”

She absolutely refuses to meet Dick’s gaze, or even look remotely in his direction. They’d fooled around sure, kissed and even touched each other but they hadn’t had sex. Eleanor knew that some of the girls in school had already had sex, they’d giggled about it in the changeroom for P.E and she’d unfortunately been there to overhear it. Not that Eleanor wasn’t curious about it, but she had no interest in hearing a bunch of fifteen and sixteen-year-old girls giggling about _size_ and ‘ _it kind of hurt the first time but it gets better.’_

Eleanor hadn’t even spoken about it with Dick yet, not that she didn’t want to mind, she was very attracted to him, found him breath-taking in really the smallest thing he’d do. Like when he ran his fingers through his slightly curled black hair, or when he would spontaneously just look over his shoulder and smile at her. Or hell, even when he’d do something like give Eleanor her favourite Wonder Woman themed mug filled with that tea she loves after a long night of patrolling.

“That’s good,” her father replies after a long pause, Eleanor’s silently debating whether she can make it to the door before he stops her. Probably not. “That’s good.” He repeats.

Eleanor squirms again, “can I go?”

“Yes,” he says, for a moment Eleanor wonders which one of them is more relieved, then she’s up and out of the chair before Bruce can say anything else, but she doesn’t quite make it out the door. “One more thing Eleanor,” he follows her, puts a heavy hand on her shoulder.

“I want you to know that I trust your judgement, and I want you to know that if you have any questions you can talk to me about it. Okay?”

Eleanor feels the tension in her body deflate a bit, she’s still mortified and probably would be for a long time, but she gets it. He’s not trying to embarrass her; he’s just trying to look out for her – for them.

“Okay,” she tries to hide a grimace but leans over and quickly hugs him, “thanks dad.”

“I love you, little one,” her father rumbles into her ear as he pulls her in tightly against him, Eleanor can’t help the tiny smile that spreads over her face, it had been a while since he referred to her as such.

“Love you too, dad.”

_Later, her and Dick will stare each other down in an awkward silence before they laugh themselves to tears._

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry not sorry! <3


End file.
